The revamping of Yoshiaki is now about 70% done. . .

As I feared, work pretty much monopolized my time over the last three weeks--and then some! Throw in a few unexpected "surprises"--courtesy of Mr. Murphy, and I'm quite surprised I'm as far along as I am!

Regardless, I am now in the finishing stages of the kawari-kabuto. A few minor touch-ups remain, but essentially I'm there. The shikoro has been reworked in its entirety: I am now finishing the extensions of the lames, and after that final fitting and lacing. Once that is done, I can then replace some of the lacings of the manju-wa, and start going through the finalization checklist.

As to its release, that will not be until next year. I spoke with Steve this morning, and I expressed to him my concerns about shipping a master sculpture during the Holiday Season. He quite agreed, so this one will be en route to him in the first week of 2013, and it may (probably will?) join the Maeda's as an early Q2-2013 release.

I will hopefully have images up before too long. In the meantime, I leave you with images of the original sculpt as a comparative baseline--and a hopefully pleasant stroll down memory lane:




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I think the Ork at 1.14 says it best

Steve